Is Rep. Boehner responsible for the death of a 22 year old Ohio woman?

If you read the website Think Progress and other lefty blogs, the answer is definitely yes:

A 22-year-old woman from Oxford, Ohio, died from swine flu on Wednesday. Kimberly Young graduated from Miami University in December and continued to live in Oxford, Ohio, within Minority Leader John Boehner's congressional distrct. Reports now indicate that after initially getting sick, Young put off treatment because she was uninsured.

"[I]f Young's lack of insurance did contribute to her not seeking treatment sooner, it would be hard to find a starker or more compelling example of the need to fix our broken health insurance system. And the fact that she was a constituent of the man who's leading House Republicans' in their effort to block reform only underlines the point."

The idea that Boehner's opposition to health care reform - or that anything Boehner has ever said or done - is in any way responsible for this young girl's death is unbelievably calumnious and so off base as to be beyond the pale of rationality, of reason, and logic. The notion that Think Progress is connected in any way to an organization - The Center for American Progress - that is supposed to be a serious place for the study and promotion of public policy is a disgrace to intellectual honesty, a blot on our public discourse, and an affront to the decency of our democracy.

If you were to peruse the archives of this uber-partisan rag, you would find literally hundreds of similar off the wall headlines that are not meant to inform, or even to attack based on facts, but rather to simply smear in the most vile and distorted manner. It is the worst of politics, and given their connection to a supposedly august think tank, beneath contempt.

Donald Douglas at American Power debunks the whole idea that national health insurance would have saved this woman's life.

Well, actually Ms. Young didn't have to "put off treatment." But let's just put aside the notion that Ms. Young actually chose to go without health insurance. Perhaps due to unaffordability she decided to forego a policy. Okay, sure. But then, why wait until at the edge of death's door to seek care at Ohio's public hospitals? That's simply irresponsible. People should seek care for themselves, even if uninsured.And unfortunately, had Ms. Young - perhaps before her emergency room visit - done a quick search online she would have detemined that Ohioans benefit from a robust netork of free healthcare clinics. For example, checking the homepage for the Ohio Association of Free Clinics indicates that Ohio's free clinics provide "Hope for the hurt. Healing for the suffering. Medications for the sick. Treatment for people who are ill." And also, "OAFC member clinics provided more than 106,000 visits to nearly 55,000 uninsured and underinsured patients in 2008."

Does the fact that national health insurance wouldn't even begin until 2013 matter to these moralizing slugs? Does the fact that other swine flu victims who died and who actually were insuredeven cross the miniscule, frenetically partisan minds of these dolts?

To sum up, the tragedy of this woman's death was the result of her lack of affordable health insurance, which is being opposed by her Congressman (which makes him culpable), and she would be alive today if only a public option for insurance had been available. And she had decided to buy into it. And she had not decided to not buy into it and pay the fine (which will probably be cheaper). And if she would have gotten treatment sooner. And if she had taken the responsibility to seek treatment at a free clinic when she was sick.

With that kind of logic and insight, it is no wonder this country's in trouble.

If you read the website Think Progress and other lefty blogs, the answer is definitely yes:

A 22-year-old woman from Oxford, Ohio, died from swine flu on Wednesday. Kimberly Young graduated from Miami University in December and continued to live in Oxford, Ohio, within Minority Leader John Boehner's congressional distrct. Reports now indicate that after initially getting sick, Young put off treatment because she was uninsured.

"[I]f Young's lack of insurance did contribute to her not seeking treatment sooner, it would be hard to find a starker or more compelling example of the need to fix our broken health insurance system. And the fact that she was a constituent of the man who's leading House Republicans' in their effort to block reform only underlines the point."

The idea that Boehner's opposition to health care reform - or that anything Boehner has ever said or done - is in any way responsible for this young girl's death is unbelievably calumnious and so off base as to be beyond the pale of rationality, of reason, and logic. The notion that Think Progress is connected in any way to an organization - The Center for American Progress - that is supposed to be a serious place for the study and promotion of public policy is a disgrace to intellectual honesty, a blot on our public discourse, and an affront to the decency of our democracy.

If you were to peruse the archives of this uber-partisan rag, you would find literally hundreds of similar off the wall headlines that are not meant to inform, or even to attack based on facts, but rather to simply smear in the most vile and distorted manner. It is the worst of politics, and given their connection to a supposedly august think tank, beneath contempt.

Donald Douglas at American Power debunks the whole idea that national health insurance would have saved this woman's life.

Well, actually Ms. Young didn't have to "put off treatment." But let's just put aside the notion that Ms. Young actually chose to go without health insurance. Perhaps due to unaffordability she decided to forego a policy. Okay, sure. But then, why wait until at the edge of death's door to seek care at Ohio's public hospitals? That's simply irresponsible. People should seek care for themselves, even if uninsured.

And unfortunately, had Ms. Young - perhaps before her emergency room visit - done a quick search online she would have detemined that Ohioans benefit from a robust netork of free healthcare clinics. For example, checking the homepage for the Ohio Association of Free Clinics indicates that Ohio's free clinics provide "Hope for the hurt. Healing for the suffering. Medications for the sick. Treatment for people who are ill." And also, "OAFC member clinics provided more than 106,000 visits to nearly 55,000 uninsured and underinsured patients in 2008."

Does the fact that national health insurance wouldn't even begin until 2013 matter to these moralizing slugs? Does the fact that other swine flu victims who died and who actually were insuredeven cross the miniscule, frenetically partisan minds of these dolts?

To sum up, the tragedy of this woman's death was the result of her lack of affordable health insurance, which is being opposed by her Congressman (which makes him culpable), and she would be alive today if only a public option for insurance had been available. And she had decided to buy into it. And she had not decided to not buy into it and pay the fine (which will probably be cheaper). And if she would have gotten treatment sooner. And if she had taken the responsibility to seek treatment at a free clinic when she was sick.

With that kind of logic and insight, it is no wonder this country's in trouble.